"You little asshole," Vic screamed, moving a hand away from his face. I watched the blood drip from his nose onto the floor. "Look at you," he mocked, biting back a laugh. "Trying to act like some church choir boy in front of that little girl when everyone knows this ain't the first time we've walked in on you fucking some little slut in here. Shit, you’ve even fucked a few of my employees." He smiled wide, showing off his overly bleached teeth before raising his voice. "You hear that little girl? This boy is bad fucking news, and I’d run my sweet, innocent ass for the hills if you’re smart.” He gave me a menacing stare while my mom grabbed a handful of paper towels. She held them against his nose to try and stop the bleeding.
“Get out of my house,” I demanded, my breathing out of control. I stepped closer towards him, ignoring my mom trying to wedge her way in-between the two of us. I shoved him back against the same wall he’d fallen against and got in his face.
"Stop it," my mom screamed, trying to pull me away from him, but I was stronger than her.
"Get the hell out, or I'll toss your sorry ass out in the street like the scum you are,” I yelled. Spit flew from my mouth, hitting him in the eye, and he pushed me away from him. Caught off guard, I stumbled back a few steps before charging back towards him. Only this time, my mom managed to get there before me.
"What's gotten into you? For fucks sake, since when you care about stupid shit like this? This is all a huge misunderstanding. You're my son, but he's also my boyfriend. Nobody is going anywhere. Now go to your room and cool off," she said, turning her pointed finger to the stairs.
"Wow, what a great boyfriend you have, mom. He has you fuck other people on camera to make a quick dollar. True love," I fired back I was speaking to her, but my eyes were frozen on Vic.
"Fuck you, you little bastard," he responded, narrowing his dark eyes at me. "Your daddy doesn't want you, and I don't blame the guy. But guess what?" His face broke out in a full-fledged smile at my silence. "I know who he is," he sang out, like a bully taunting the fat kid on the playground. It felt like someone kicked me in the gut, but I kept a straight face, not letting the jackass know he was hitting a sensitive spot.
"You think I give a flying fuck who my dad is? I haven't given two shits since my mom told me he wanted nothing to do with me! NOW GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE!" I picked up a hand-carved vase my mom had overpaid for in Paris and threw it across the room.
She yelled out when a loud bang erupted, and the sound of shattering glass echoed through the house. Tiny shards of glass poured across the floor.
"Keegan," my mom shouted, stone faced. "You don't control who comes and goes in this house." The tip of her finger slammed into my bare chest. "I'm your mother, and this is my house."
I laughed. Little did Mommy Dearest know that I was nosy as shit as a child and figured out a long time ago that our house and everything we owned was in my name, not hers. "You have all of this shit because of me!" I roared, grabbing her alcohol glass and shattering that against the wall, too. "This is my house, not yours! So thank you for bringing me into this shitty fucking life. You aren't a fucking mother, you're a useless woman who doesn't give a shit about anyone but herself."
She winced, her face turning white as a ghost. Her shock drew her away from Vic, and I swiftly moved around her to grab him by his collar again. He pushed back against my chest, but I held on, dragging him out of the house. I tossed him down onto the front lawn when I reached the last step.
"If you ever come into this house again, I'll beat the living shit out of you. Do you understand me, asshole?" I asked.
My mom bumped into my side, sprinting to Vic sprawled out on the grass. “Vic, I am so sorry," she rushed out, kneeling down on her knees by his side.
"You're sorry for him?" I screamed out at her, getting every neighbor's attention on the block. "This fucking creep just watched me have sex with my girlfriend, offered her a job as a porn star, and called me a bastard, but you're sorry to him? Shouldn’t you be apologizing to me?”
She staggered to her feet, brushing her long hair away from her face, and perused her enlarged lips. "You're the one who started this whole fiasco," she cried out, pointing at me, and I noticed the tiny glimmer of wetness in her eyes. "You shouldn't have said anything. Why can't you just let me be happy for once?"
"Please tell me what the hell you aren't happy about, Layla? You've never had to take care of me, so you're unhappiness is nowhere near my fault. You're unhappy because you've fucked up your life so bad you'll never be able to fix it. It isn't my fault you fucked a guy, got pregnant, and he didn’t want you!” My voice lowered. "You fucked up my life, too. But you know what? I realized it before I turned out like you."
"You don't mean that," she said, running her hands down her too-tight, neon pink dress.
"I do."
"You just wait, you little shit," Vic warned, pulling himself to his feet and hobbling to his car. "You'll get what's fucking coming to you." He looked at my mom and opened the driver's side door. "You coming or what?"
Her head nodded, and she looked away from me.
"Pathetic," I spat out, turning around and walking away from the woman who'd given birth to me but not once had chosen to act like a mother. I turned away from the woman who'd picked a man over her own son; her own blood.
The entire house shook from the force of the door slamming shut behind me. The lock clicked around my hand, and I twisted my body around to turn up the stairs, but my legs stumbled into something hard on the bottom step.
I glanced down to see Daisy curled into a ball with tears flushing down her red cheeks. What had she seen? She scrambled to her feet and shuffled backwards, away from me.
"Baby." My mind instantly flew to the worst-case scenario where she left me. "Say something," I choked out, desperation clear in my scratchy voice.
"I want to," she replied, throwing her hands to her sides. Her dark eyes smoldered into mine. "I really do, but I don't know what to say after all of that.”
I took a step closer, resulting in her taking a few more back. I stopped, holding my hands out. “We both know I've done some stupid shit. I won't even try to deny it, but that was all before you. You can't stand there and try to chastise me for something I did before I even met you."
“I know.” She stared at me, trying to find the right words to dump my ass. "It's just too much for me to handle right now. You're too much for me to handle.” She gestured between the two of us and then to the floor covered with broken glass. “This isn’t something I want. This isn’t the kind of relationship for me.”
“Here we go again. You don't want me?" I shouted, slamming my already bloody fist into the wall. My eyes glared daggers into ones that could barely meet mine. "Quit playing games. We both want each other, and don't you dare fucking deny it. You were just riding my cock fifteen minutes ago. I'm in love with you." The words fell out of my mouth, shocking the two of us, but I didn't stop there as I began pacing in front of her. “Do you understand how hard it is for me to love someone? To let them in? I’ve given you everything I could possibly give, and I just want something in return.” I stopped in my tracks as realization struck me. “You were never going to give me a real chance, were you?”
“What are you talking about? I did give you a chance. You … you just don’t understand.”
"You think I don't understand hurt?" I fired back, my hands dropping to my sides. "I'm a bastard child whose parents want nothing to do with him. My dad doesn't even want me to know who he is, and my mom stays away screwing people on camera because I'm nothing but a mere reminder of the guy who didn't want her. The only reason I'm here right now is because I'm a paycheck. So you may have lost one person in your life, but I've never had anyone in my life to lose."
Her head jerked forward. "You have me," she whispered. "No matter what happens between us, I'll always be there for you."
No matter what happened between us? She was breaking up with me for no goddamn reason.
"Wrong
," I seethed. "I thought I had you, but you're all the same. You needed a distraction and a fuck."
Her head whipped back at my crude words. "You don't mean that."
I let out a harsh laugh. “The fuck I don’t. You got what you wanted, princess. Now you can leave me the hell alone.”
"Keegan," she breathed out, walking towards me, but I held out my hands to stop her.
"Get out of my house." She winced at my words, but didn’t move. I whipped around, stomping to the door, and swung it open.
Her shoulders slouched, and she clutched her arms around her body like a barrier. "Just talk to me. Let’s talk about this.”
"Too late," I answered. "Leave."
"But …”
I held my hand up and over talked her. "Daisy, please get out of my house.” I wasn’t sure how I’d gone from having hot as fuck sex with my girlfriend to punching my mom’s boyfriend to kicking Daisy out of my house. The entire day had been fucked up.
She sighed and rubbed her eyes with her knuckles as she walked passed me.
I knew I was being an idiot, but I was done. Done with all of them. I’d told her this is how love was. I broke my rule of never giving anyone that power over me. I tried everything to get her, to be her shoulder to lean on, but sometimes even when you tried your hardest, you still couldn’t win. I tried to fix her, but I should've remembered the number one rule about fixing broken people: you always get stabbed with their sharp edges.
And Daisy stabbed the fuck out of me.
DAISY
Chapter Twenty-Eight
My eyes singled in on Keegan passing by me with a skinny, red head wrapped in his arms. They merged through the lunchroom crowd and went to his old table. Red head’s arms folded behind his neck as she parked herself directly on his lap, practically straddling him in front of everyone. Memories flashed back to the last time I was in that position with him, and what we’d done. I still remembered the feel of his lips against mine and the way he’d touched me.
I regretted leaving his house and what I’d said to him, but he wouldn’t even give me the chance to apologize. He didn’t answer my calls or texts. I wanted to explain myself. I’d been in shock from everything that happened and what I’d heard. I wanted him to understand that I’d needed time to process everything.
"You know he's only doing that to piss you off, right?" Lane asked, with a sympathetic look on his face. He’d been telling me the same thing everyday since Keegan and I broke up. “He’s actually pretty beat up about whatever the hell happened between the two of you that you both refuse to tell anyone about.”
Cora scoffed, throwing her braid over her shoulder. “Sure looks like the jackass is distraught. I hope you wouldn’t let other chicks bathe your neck with their tongues when we have an argument and you are,” her voice lowered to mimic Lane’s, “pretty beat up about it. Pu-lease.”
Lane's eyes whipped over to Cora. "Babe, I wouldn't ever pull that shit, but what you three don't understand is that this is all new to him. Daisy is the only girl he's ever cared about, and you hurt him."
"I didn't do anything," I said, slightly annoyed at me getting the blame. "Just because it’s his first relationship doesn't mean he can do whatever he wants then say, "Oh my bad, I'm new at this," and get away with it."
Lane put his hand up to stop me from saying anything else. "And I'm sure he hurt you, too,” he said. “You guys need to talk. This whole silent treatment, immature bullshit isn't going to do anything but make it worse. Silence is deadly to a relationship."
"You don't think I've tried? He ignores me, so obviously we don't have a relationship. I've tried to talk to him, but he ignores all my phone calls." I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms.
"Give him time.”
I shook my head. "Nu uh. I'm not going to give him time to hook up with all of his groupies and wait for him to decide he's ready to be serious about our relationship. I might not be able to save our relationship, but I'm at least going to save my pride.”
"Stay strong, girl," Gabby said, beside me, patting my arm before looking across the table at Lane. "And when did you become some relationship guru, Dr. Phil?"
Lane's smile grew, spreading from ear to ear. "I'm a fucking genius on every level. I know how to treat the ladies."
Cora rolled her eyes at the same time the bell rang. Everyone began to file out of the lunchroom. I slid out of my chair, dreading what was coming next. My muscles practically jumped out of my skin as I headed towards Health class. Keegan hadn’t shown up for school for the next two days after our fight, and when he finally did he’d acted like I was invisible.
I sat down and spotted him heading towards the opposite side of the room.
“Heya, Daisy,” Dirk greeted, sitting down next to me and tossing his books on the desk.
"Hey," I answered, keeping my eyes on the back of Keegan's head while he talked to the girl next to him.
"So I was wondering if you wanted to get together this weekend? We could go to dinner and see a movie?"
Before I could even muster up a lame excuse to tell Dirk no, the loud boom of a book falling on the floor brought my attention back to Keegan. He whipped around in his chair, his eyes glaring daggers at the guy next to me.
"Dirk, I don't give a fuck if Daisy is with me or not. If you try to touch her, I promise you’ll never touch anything else again because I’ll break every fucking finger on your scrawny little hand,” Keegan warned him.
Dirk chuckled. “Ah, come on, Keegan. You never care if anyone has your leftovers. What’s the deal?”
My body flushed in embarrassment. I couldn’t believe Dirk just called me Keegan’s leftover in front of the entire room. Keegan surged out of his seat, causing his chair to slide against the floor.
"What the fuck did you just say?" he asked, stalking over to us, his knuckles clenched into fists.
Oh shit.
I hopped out of my chair, barely making it in front of Dirk’s desk before Keegan. I blocked him from getting to Dirk. The sad part was that Dirk actually let me do it.
"Move Daisy," Keegan barked, his eyes blazing fire at Dirk. If look could kill, Dirk would’ve been instantly annihilated.
I crossed my arms over my chest. "No, because you'll do something stupid and get expelled."
He bit out a laugh. "You think I give a damn about getting in trouble? This is none of your business."
“I'm pretty sure it is considering this entire argument is about what he said about me.”
"Dude, I'm sorry. You know I didn't mean it like that," Dirk choked out from behind me. As much as I wanted Dirk to suffer for his stupid remark, it wasn't worth Keegan getting in trouble.
"See, he just apologized," I told Keegan, in case he didn't hear, gesturing to the jackass behind me.
"And?"
"So this is over," I demanded.
"The fuck it is. Dirk, get your ass up," he said, trying to move through me.
"Is there a problem here?" I jumped at the sound of Miss Carter's voice behind me.
"Nope, no problem," Keegan answered, not even bothering to turn around or move away from Dirk's desk.
"Then why don't you take your seat, Keegan," she said.
"Dirk is in my seat," he spat, reaching behind me and pulling Dirk up by the front of his shirt. He tossed him to the side, causing Dirk to fall to the floor on his hands and knees. Unsure of what was coming next, I stepped in front of Dirk again, noticing the entire classroom's attention on us.
"Get back in your seat, Daisy. I'm not going to do anything," Keegan said, with a sneer.
Dirk rose to his feet slowly and wiped the front of his jeans down with his hands. "Oh wow, you talked the monster down. Impressive," he said, under his breath.
"I would shut my fucking mouth and keep walking before I change my mind," Keegan said, lunging for him again, but Dirk grabbed his books and scurried away. I held back my laughter as I watched him take the long way, walking around all of the desks to avoid passing by K
eegan as he moved to an empty desk.
"Okay you two, have a seat, or I'll send you all to the principal's office," Miss Douglas said.
I shuffled the few steps back to my chair while Keegan slid into Dirk's seat. "You stood up for me," I finally whispered, once everyone's attention turned back to the teacher.
His jaw twitched. "Cut the bullshit. Don't try to act like you're not surprised I still care about you. You think everything I felt for you disappeared because of what happened? My feelings for you were never forced or fake."
His words seared through me. Did he think my feelings for him weren’t real? “Then why won’t you talk to me?” I asked, trying to force back tears.
"We have nothing to talk about. I realized I should've listened to the guy's warning at the hospital who told me to stay away from you." His hands ran through his dark, overgrown hair. "So just quit. What we had was nice, but we both know it was only temporary. So just let it be. I won’t interfere with you having any other relationships, but you need to stay the fuck away from Dirk. He'll only hurt you."
"And you haven't?"
With that, he lunged out of his seat and stormed out of the room.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Cora scooped up a strawberry with her spoon. "So I need to tell you something,” she told me.
"Okay," I drew out, not sure I wanted to hear what she was about to reveal, especially if it was Keegan related.
"I overheard Ragan talking in the locker room after tennis practice today."
I groaned, tossing my spoon into my frozen yogurt bowl, and leaned back in my chair. Ragan was the redhead who'd been up Keegan's ass lately "Yeah, I don't even want know what she had to say.”
Cora's mouth turned up into a smile. "That's the thing, you do. She was complaining about how weird he acts around her. She said that when they're in public or at school, he plays it off like he’s all into her. But as soon as the audience is gone, so is he. She's terribly disappointed because she allegedly has been waiting to fuck him since freshman year." I eyed her across the table warily. "Her words, not mine," she rushed out.
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